i am a fellow at the foreign policy institute here at sais. you mentioned one common interest the united states has with russia and syria is to prevent syria from becoming a base of operations for al qaeda. once we start changing the border regime in that part of the world, we are in for changes that will have many repercussions. my question is as follows -- do you foresee in the medium-term, scenario where we see assad staying in power as being instrumental in that we share with the russians. > i think the american position, which i support, has been that you had, in syria, at he beginning of the arab spring, a movement that represented the aspirations of the majority of the syrian people across the secretary and lines for more openness and hange. the assad regime is a brutal regime that suppresses the rights of the people. e need to change the regime in syria. the challenge has been -- from our perspective we think be syrian the people deserve a government, one that represents their aspirations. we need to make sure that as we transition, wh